Police Don’t Appreciate Volunteers Protecting Ferguson

Police not protecting Ferguson order volunteers to stop protecting Ferguson

One of the real police victories in this story is that, when a father used a baseball bat to rescue his daughter from a pimp, the police cooperated and arrested the pimp. There was nothing in the story about the police finding some reason to charge the father for “taking the law into his own hands.”

In Ferguson, however, the police (or someone in charge of the police; I’m not going to assume that every one of them is so unreasonable) are acting like an entitled monopoly rather than public servants in a free country with a Second Amendment.

Volunteers have come to provide security for businesses and protect building from arson. They are an outfit called Oath Keepers—a name that points to their vow to never violate the Constitution or follow an unlawful order to do so. They are mostly former or current military, police, firefighters, etc.

According to my local Fox 2 station, Oath Keepers spokesman Sam Andrews claims that they have won over the residents.

“Once they got to know us they said, ‘We’re so glad you’re here. Thank you for coming; we appreciate everything you’re doing. Keep it up, please don’t leave. we trust you, we love you.’ Things like that.”

It took some time, however. Residents at first mistook them for police and were hostile. Apparently, during one of the first nights they were guarding buildings—a bitterly cold night—one of Michael Brown’s relatives accused an Oath Keepers member of belonging to the Ku Klux Klan. The man was bundled up against the cold, but when he heard the accusation he pulled off his face mask and said, “Really? Do you think they expanded their membership opportunities?”

He was Native American and Filipino.

But while the residents have been won over, the police have grown more resistant. They have ordered the volunteers to leave.

A week ago today as Ferguson smoldered, the Oath Keepers, a volunteer network of current and former us military, police and firefighters moved in to guard businesses, residents and peaceful protesters. However, on Saturday, they were ordered to leave by St. Louis County police after being welcomed earlier in the week.

Leader Sam Andrews complied but is legally challenging that order to leave. Tuesday, they are going to get an order against that junction. The organization is looking for volunteers to assist.

“Chief Belmar has told his men to do unconstitutional things like ID people who have not committed crimes. Coming on private property ad ordering them off of private property when they are not committing a crime. Chief Belmar needs to resign or start acting in a very constitutional way.” said Sam Andrews.

Why did they tell you to vacate?

“They claim that they had a St. Louis County ordinance that prevented anyone from securing a building or conducting a security operation without a St. Louis County license.” said Sam Andrews. “We are all volunteers, as a matter of fact, no one has taken a dime. Everyone spent their own money to get out and help the people of Ferguson.”